CK Down Under

We are home

2012-01-26T23:11:00.003+13:00

Candace and Cameron came home from the maternity unit today to fill up the house. Bryce has already walked into the bassinet in our room a couple of times, better adapt before falling in I guess. Emily seems OK with Cameron's arrival except when Candace was feeding, then there was some solid "No" comments from Emily. All good though.

The One Day Old Youngster

2012-01-25T22:59:00.003+13:00

Everything appears to be going well, with Candace and Cameron likely to head home tomorrow.

Emily was happy to meet Cameron after all this baby talk...

...but was far happier about her box of raisins!

More to follow when time permits!

It's a boy!

2012-01-24T22:32:00.003+13:00

Cameron James Lorcet
4.1kg, 9.1lb

Counting down the days

2012-01-20T21:59:00.007+13:00

Due date minus 6 days.

Emily is getting used to midwife visits, and is pretty keen on getting her baby checked out.

Chopsticks, sushi race, sausage and mustard, yummy.

Go my little girl, and look at that shadow.

Baby waiting...

2012-01-19T13:37:00.003+13:00

I don't have a recent picture of my massive tummy but will try to get one before Newbee arrives. We have one week to go until the due date but there are no signs that this one will make its appearance early. And since only 5% of women actually deliver ON their due date, I expect at least 10 days from now still. Which isn't too bad as there are lots of things to get done around here while we still have 'free time'.

Bryce has been a mad man with his deck; cleaning, scrubbing, waterblasting and oiling the back and front decks to give them a much needed spruce up. This has made for some good laughs as his kiwi accent tends to tweak the word "deck" to sound a bit more personal but inappropriate. Especially when he says, "come here and marvel at my deck", or him saying that "there is way too much mold that has grown on my deck, I need to water blast it off" and so on. You can imagine the laughs.

Emily has been enjoying her life as a single child and getting all the attention from both parents, which is soon to change. She is talking more and more every day and we are having a lot of fun teaching her how to say new things. I personally love it when she says 'sup' [whats up?] to her friend in the mirror.

Wild Child

2012-01-04T13:32:00.003+13:00

Here is a video of baby #2 - nicknamed Newbee for now. This is normal Newbee behaviour after my dinner. However, I must say, this video was taken after a curry and Newbee was particularly active. The video is taken of my tummy from my viewpoint. Enjoy, and men, try not to cringe too much. It doesn't hurt.

Newbee - in utero from Candace K on Vimeo.

Christmas

2011-12-30T20:14:00.012+13:00

You'd think that Emily was excited for Christmas morning by waking up at 5:50am, but she didn't have a clue; she just didn't want to be asleep anymore. As you can see, Bryce's eyes can indicate that it was an early morning.

Em wasn't really into all the unwrapping of gifts without being able to play with what ever it was that she had just unwrapped. Until she unwrapped the Dora chair. Now THAT she loved!

Off to Christmas lunch and the Dora chair had to come along with us.

Post lunch energy-burning adventure to the park.

I may have been working off a couple of beers and a big lunch.

36 weeks and growing.

A more relaxed start to boxing day with Nanny.

Lining up a photo of Candace in her new Puku ('stomach' in Maori) shirt when Emily shuffles sideways into the scene with her best smile...

Then off to the park with Nanny and GG to feed the ducks.

Emily likes chops

2011-12-22T22:45:00.004+13:00

Ah summer bbq's. Looks like Emily likes chops.

Post bike ride picnic

2011-12-22T22:20:00.004+13:00

CK convinced a friend of Bryce's to take him for a birthday ride (not a hard task convincing Bryce to ride) under the guise of setting up a picnic lunch date with Candace and Emily.

Damn fine ride topped off by meeting up with a waving Emily in the middle of a park at the end of the ride.

Good times.

Zoo time.

2011-11-28T22:14:00.007+13:00

Emily is pretty good at using a mix of sign language and words to name animals, and is a huge fan of her plastic "ammils" so we decided a zoo visit was in order.

First up feeding time with the Giraffe's

We think she liked that.

Wandered over to see Chimpanzees. Em was crouching down to admire the platform decking then spied some Chimps and just sat there pointing saying "Oooh".

Back to #1 favorite Giraffe's.

Plenty of other cool stuff there, and we now have a daughter who is big fan of big cats.

There is certainly something to be said about crouching on the other side of a (bullet proof) glass window and looking directly into the eyes of a lion and seeing his pupils adjust, you note that all you are is a meal.

Big Girl Bed saga continues....

2011-11-25T12:32:00.002+13:00

Day #3. After the debacle of the cot/bed naptime confusion, we decided that maybe because some of Emily's things were still hanging around in her old room, she was getting mixed messages about where "her place" was. So that night we decided to put her to sleep over night in the big girl bed. We were both a bit apprehensive about making the full switch to the bed, as it gives Emily more freedom to wake and come and see us whenever she wants, including in the early morning hours! Anyway, it was a cold night so we put her in her blue pajama suit which is nice and warm and makes her feel like a teddy bear when you cuddle her. She fell asleep pretty well and cried out around 1am but didn't continue so we left her alone. I woke up at 3:30 and went and checked on her. As I walked beside the bed, I felt a teddy bear on the floor and wondered which teddy it was and whether Bryce had put it there or she had. Just as I was about to pick up the teddy, the teddy took a big breath and sighed sleepily. It was then I realised it was my lil girl, dressed as a teddy, who had fallen out of bed (probably at 1 am, when she cried) but decided to continue to sleep on the floor, head down, bum straight up. Too cute. I was able to pick her up and put her back in bed without waking her and sneak out of the room easily. She woke up an hour earlier than normal but we figured that was going to happen with all the changes. Last night, she slept even better and I think that was partially due to moving all of her stuff into the new room and her really feeling like she has her own place now. She even slept through till 7am this morning and gave us both our sleep in again! We shall see how night #3 goes, but I can almost say that our little baby has indeed transitioned into big girl now!

Big Girl Bed

2011-11-23T12:12:00.003+13:00

Last week we began the "Big Girl Room" transition in preparation for the new baby to arrive. We emptied the "Palatial Manor" (the name our good friend Robyn named our spare room, even when it was only a small piece of floor in the kitchen of our old apartment). Then we put in a bunch of kid furniture, all of Em's toys and her new single bed, fitted with Pooh Bear sheets to sweeten the deal. Emily was thrilled and has really enjoyed playing in there for the last week. Also, for the first three or four days, she was very keen to sleep in her "big girl bed" for naptime during the day. Selfishly, we have kept her in her cot in the other room at night to ensure a long sleep and no early morning wake-ups for us!
However, for the past 2 days, Emily has chosen to have her nap in the crib/cot instead and does not want to be in the big bed anymore. Today, she was all excited to sleep in the single bed until just before she laid down and then she was sure she wanted to sleep elsewhere. However, when taken to her cot, she refused to lie down there also.
When given the option again as to where she would like to sleep, she just kind of stood in between the two rooms, unsure. I suggested we read another book before we decide. Instead of going to her bookshelf, she quickly went to the lounge and grabbed Bryce's industrial sized "The History of New Zealand" and pulled it off the shelf. With all its 562 pages and no pictures, it is not the ideal pre-nap time story. I think she knew what she was doing though. We better keep an eye on her!

Wellington Christmas Parade

2011-11-14T21:47:00.005+13:00

We adventured down to Wellington last weekend for the Xmas parade. Em stood pretty much transfixed watching the procession, saving extra special waving for the floats carrying cartoon characters despite having never seen many of them. Good times.

Then there was this guy getting a better vantage point.

Newbee continues to grow...

2011-11-07T21:31:00.003+13:00

I am at 28 weeks but measuring a belly that should be at 34 weeks! Our midwife is confident it does not mean an earlier baby arrival; it's just that there is an excess of amniotic fluid that is present and pushing my navel out towards the free world. So essentially, I am carrying around a baby paddling pool, which is conveniently attached to my front, so that I am now bumping into people and things more often. It is difficult to squeeze past students in the hallway when it is really busy and more of them are starting to stare now; as I am a bit of an oddity to look at! You know you have a big belly when even close friends laugh at you when they first see you. This is becoming more common, but I am getting used to it. I am pleased, at least, to have the "big belly paddling pool" excuse for being massive, instead of just having to succumb to the fact that I have eaten too many cookies.

Guy Fawkes night

2011-11-07T21:24:00.002+13:00

Emily experienced her first Guy Fawkes Night along with her first exposure to fireworks and sparklers. She didn't really get a chance to enjoy the sparklers too much as she didn't get that it needed to be held away from the face. However, she loved the actual noisy fireworks that were going off in front of her on the beach. What a fun night! We were pretty sure she wouldn't stay awake long enough, but having other kids to hang around that were super excited made Emily go the distance.
Once on the beach, we settled down onto a beach blanket and Emily was all cozy and tucked into Daddy's lap. Only removing her hands from Daddy's cupped hands to clap and ask for "more" every time the fireworks stopped going "BANG!"
She was a champ and super cute, despite the cold wind and late night.

Rugby World Cup Parade

2011-10-28T13:26:00.004+13:00

The ALL BLACKS won the World Cup and the country has gone mental. The number of flags that we have seen adorning cars and houses for the past 6 weeks has been huge and we have seen very few taken down even a few days after the final was played. It is nice to see the patriotism from the kiwis, even though it has to be surrounding a sport and not just about being a New Zealander. However, since there is no day of celebration here, equivalent to Independence Day or Canada Day, the kiwis only get so many chances to embrace being a citizen and showing their pride. We decided to join in the fun on Wednesday when we went and cheered for the ALL BLACKS as they paraded through the streets of Wellington, in the rain. Thank goodness they were on trucks, or it would have been too hard to see them from where most people were standing. The forecast was shite, but luckily the rain mostly held off during the parade and the torrential downpour started once we were back on the train. Kim and I braved the elements with four kids ranging in age from 18 months to 7 years old. Easy peasy.

Rugby World Cup

2011-10-06T09:51:00.002+13:00

Here are some of the pics from CANADA DAY at the Rugby World Cup last weekend. We didn't actually get to any of the games as they were pretty expensive but it sure was fun to be a part of the action in town before the games.

First haircut

2011-10-06T09:48:00.004+13:00

We took Emily to get the hair out of her eyes last weekend. She was a good sport, considering she was sitting on Dad's knee and it took all of 5 minutes. We didn't dare cut any of her curls but needed to fix the fringe/bangs. As you can see, she is pretty careful to watch Mommy and make sure that Mom is okay with all of this scissor action.

Spring is here, summer is on it's way!

2011-09-23T13:23:00.003+12:00

We have had a pretty long winter with some unusual weather around the country. Even last week we had another hailstorm hit our house and leave Wellington with slushy streets for the day. At long last we are having days without the fireplace roaring and many more visits to the beach. Emily is even starting to get used to wearing sunglasses, although she still pulls them off pretty quickly. Bryce just got back from his annual Vegas trip and brought back an american cold/flu which has slowed his down considerably this week and amalgamated with my current New Zealand cough to put me on bedrest yesterday! Add all this to an emergency 111 call to the fire department last week when the chimney was glowing red from a chimney fire and we have had an eventful month of September.
Emily is still being a fussy eater from time to time, with the exception of "as-tah" (pasta) which she enjoys immensely (as you can see from the following photos).

Em found a cowboy hat in the closet that had been destined for her cousin Nisha in Canada but would have cost jizillions in freight to mail it, so it stayed in New Zealand. Lucky for Emily, because she is loving being a cowgirl!

Em is enjoying tearing around on her bike, even indoors. Here you can see her taking George the teddy for a ride around the kitchen. She is really starting to create her own little stories and make believe. She especially enjoys feeding her baby and tucking it under a blanket to go to sleep. It's so sweet watching her kiss the baby good night. Mind you, if she is caring for her baby and I offer her some food she usually just chucks the baby on the ground and runs to me, so we still have a ways to go before she perfects her mothering. It does make us think she will enjoy having a baby brother or sister though. She knows that there is a "bubba" in my tummy, but isn't quite sure whether that means her and Daddy also have one in their tummy too.

Snow day part 2

2011-08-23T19:30:00.006+12:00

Prior to last weeks "the snow came to us" day, we had planned a trip to Mt Ruapehu so that Emily could meet the snow for the first time.

Being a blue bird Saturday after the years biggest snow dumping, there were a huge number of cars heading for the mountain. We had planned on driving a little way up the hill and parking on the side of the road, jump around, slide a bit, build a snowman, depart the scene type mission however the Whakapapa ski area access road was closed. By 9am all the car parks were full, and they didn't want any more cars going up as there was no where to put them.

As the road gate people had no interest in letting us past the barrier, we went sideways to find a patch of snow to have fun on. Good friend Rachel and daughter Holly joined us for the snow mission. Holly's main interest seemed to be eating snow!

Despite the expressionless look, Emily did some sign language for "more" so probably enjoyed the sliding.

Once Emily and Holly had burned out, we headed for the Grand Chateau for some luxury hot chocolate and scones.

On Sunday we headed off for a walk around Lake Rotoponamu near Turangi.

Em decided she was done with the backpack and needed to walk herself, worked for a bit however she is easily sidetracked!

Mondays "big snow" day

2011-08-15T19:45:00.008+12:00

Some strange weather going on here! Apparently -73.3 degree last night. You think we would have noticed that.

Awoke to this sort of mix between hail and genuine snow.

Since there was a fair bit more snow on the hills behind town, Candace and Em decided to take a drive to visit some snow.

First snowman building experience.

After a (cold) clear sky morning it got darker and the real snow started falling. This is looking out the door at Bryce's work.

It may not look like much, but this is at sea level and I'm sure the statisticians will have to consult the history books to tell us when this last happened here. Maybe there will be more to report tomorrow.

Weekend wandering

2011-08-14T11:55:00.005+12:00

The weather folks were calling for almost snow like conditions today so we decided to head out into the jungle for a walk. For a change we put Emily on her feet rather than the backpack to see if she would follow the track to any degree.

Turns out Emily was pretty focused on following the path.

With a tree down across the track Em simply wanted a hand to grab to help her climb up and over.

Once back to the car it was all about the post walk feed.

Poor Daddy...

2011-08-07T19:39:00.003+12:00

http://willowtree.info/product/new-life
Here is a picture of the beautiful figurine my parents gave us when Emily was first born. It has sat on our coffee table for 13 months, until Emily was more adept at finding things in the house to play with that aren't "toys". For the past 2 months, this lovely couple and their baby who are sharing a quiet moment admiring their new baby have been thrown and knocked off the table innumerable times. They have fared extremely well throughout all this toddler torment....until today.
Maybe it was the couple just saying, "this is enough, we can't take any more abuse", or maybe it was the increased strength our 16 month-old has when throwing. Regardless, the statue is no more, and literally speaking, "Daddy has lost his head". I hope this isn't foreshadowing the state of Emily's father when he holds his second child in his hands and realises life is gonna move a lot quicker.
Here is our figurine, as it looks, post-Emily-shot-putter-extraordinaire....

Parenting is fun!

2011-08-06T09:09:00.006+12:00

I am pleased to say that since my last post Emily is growing and changing so much but her need to touch everything and pull everything off shelves has slowed down. It may have something to do with the fact that most rooms in the house have closed doors during the days now, to avoid mishap throughout the entire house!
We headed up north to visit Trish, Sinka, Sammy and Henry during the school holidays and also visit with our friends Carl and Denise and their two boys. Here is a picture of Carl and Bryce and their protege's at the foozball table. It is a bit dangerous for little ones to play as they handles are exactly at head height for them and Liam actually got taken out by a rogue move by Emily or Bryce when trying to defend their goal!

We had a really nice time visitingthe Sinclairs at the farm and Emily loved being around all the animals (dogs, cats, chickens, lambs, sheep). It was nice to get away, especially after having not had my usual "mom" break from Em by teaching at school. It was also really cold and rainy for much of the holiday so being cooped up inside with the fireplace and a 15month old made for some tiring days.
Em is really enjoying her little trike. She motors around on that thing pretty quick now and enjoys going downhill.

Its also neat to watch her start to get shy around other people. She is recognizing that things she does without thinking around Mom and Dad might look silly in front of others, and chooses to shy away. It is very cute.

We took Emily and Mia to Lindale to see some of the farm animals yesterday. The girls enjoyed getting up close to all the animals, although the lambs were a bit intense for our lil ladies. Especially when Cheryl and I got to feed the lambs their milk from a bottle. Those little sheep were extremely energetic sucklers and it made Em a bit freaked out. She didn't let go of me the whole time I had the bottle in hand.

What comes before terrible twos?

2011-07-25T11:49:00.004+12:00

Emily has been bit by the curiousity bug - she needs to touch and handle everything, even if it's just for a second. There has been a remarkable change in her in the past few days where she just is so interested in everything, especially in the things I am doing and touching - whether I am cooking, typing, reading, or putting on clothes. It is neat to see her so interested, but it can be a little tiring to try to keep up with her swift attention span changing from one thing to the next so rapidly. Bryce had her sitting in the front seat of the car yesterday after his bike race, and she was a maniac with all the buttons and knobs to play with.
She has also taken to wearing her helmet more often, due to the cuteness factor of the panda picture on the front of it. As you can see, she wears it around the house, even when her bike is nowhere near. Bryce is thrilled.

This is Emily and her friend Mia. They are really starting to recognize each other and enjoy playing together. Emily tends to be a little too affectionate though at times and can knock Mia over when she tries to give Mia a kiss/hug/aka rugby tackle.

Newbie, Lorenzo, the Jan project?

2011-07-13T12:06:00.002+12:00

Looking for a nickname for the newest addition to the Lorcet clan. Bryce quite likes Newbie, but our friends have a dog named Newbie and it reminds me too much of calling our new baby after a canine! Lorenzo is my pick, but as we don't know (and won't until D-Day) the gender, Lorenzo seems to lean to the masculine side a wee more.

I am excited to be pregnant again, but a little in awe of going through the whole event all over again. Luckily, Emily is such a cutie each day that it reminds me why I am going through the morning sickness, fat tummy, stretch marks and the inevitable "day of pain" once more. Let's just try to remember that I said that this is only for once more.
This is a picture of Lorenzo's lil feet. Awwww..... ;)

We like new skills!

2011-07-05T22:30:00.004+12:00

Why is it with kids that you know immediately that you need to go and investigate as soon as they disappear and go quiet?

Oh, and we like things like this written on the ground.

Our beach adventure

2011-06-20T20:15:00.004+12:00

After being stuffed up in the house most of the weekend from heaps of rain (except for one super fun cocktail party where Bryce and I actually had a night out together!), Emily and I decided we needed an outdoor adventure on Monday.
Our friends Cheryl and Mia joined us and although our adventure was pretty mild by most standards, it was refreshing to be outside in the sun for a couple of hours. Emily and Mia had fun playing on the beach with the shells, sand and driftwood, until....Emily found her shadow. She was curious and a bit intimidated that she couldn't get away from it, unless she hid in Mommy's shadow, of course.

Em and Mia at the Beach from Candace K on Vimeo.

and here's the pic of Bryce and I on our first date since November (we think?).

Winter Cyclocross

2011-06-12T15:46:00.008+12:00

Went along to the start of the winter Cyclocross series today, great fun in the mud. We call this pose - "bring it on, motha nature"

We suited Emily up in her Rain Suit and rubber boots, along with her woolen beanie/"toque" and gloves/"mitts". She was a bit slow to move at first, as I remember being as a young child in all my snowsuit clothing getting prepared for the Canadian outdoors. Em's curiosity and love for puddles overcame the confines of the rubber attire and she explored her surroundings. Unfortunately for her, she fell several times and managed to use her face to brace the fall. She seemed to enjoy "eating dirt" though, which pleased her father and inflated further his dreams for her future as a professional mountain biker. The many spectators of the race, became Emily spectators; and she had a few onlookers and a few cheers after a fall, when Emily was stood up again, fully smiling, amidst the wet mud, on her face.

Bryce decided to do the short race (30 min + a lap, vs 45 min + a lap) as he hadn't been training much and had been sick for the past few weeks. His attempt to "blow it all out" worked and his cold seems to be lessened post-race. He came 2nd in his race, so I think he was pretty happy with his efforts.

The course got slashed with rain the day before the race, so the bikes and riders got covered in mud. Not that seemed to effect the outcome at all. We had hoped to see some muddy carnage with cyclists sliding off their bikes on each corner, but most riders were pretty lucky.

Emily enjoyed watching all the bikes riding together and kept calling out "dada" which is her name for bike. She didn't get much dirtier than this after almost 2 hours in the mud, which was pretty good for the cleanup at the car. What was really cool, was after taking off all of her muddy gear and getting her nice and warm and eating in the back of the car, she cozied right into my down jacket and looked like she was ready to fall asleep. I have always loved being outside, and playing in the cold weather, but the most awesomest thing about doing that is the feeling of warmth you get after you come back inside and get into warm clothing. It was beautiful to watch our daughter learn to appreciate one of the awesome things in life. Next step: introduce hot chocolate and marshmallows to that moment. She will flip.

NYC Bike lane entertainment.

2011-06-10T11:23:00.000+12:00

This is too good not to share.

Rain + picnic + 3 toddlers = ADVENTURE

2011-06-07T10:20:00.003+12:00

I decided that it might be fun to go for a walk with some friends and have a picnic in the park. What I hadn't envisioned or (maybe more appropriately worded) "forecasted" was the extreme downpour we might encounter on our outing.

Everybody was in the right mood for an adventure in the rain though, and we found a spot in the forest to throw down a tarp and shelter under some trees for our picnic.

Emily playing in the puddles after the rains stopped, which coincidentally ended once we got back to our cars.

We had her rubber boots in the car, but she was in the puddles, up to her ankles before we could switch her shoes for boots. She loved it though, and I think she liked the squishy feeling in her shoes from all the water.

Fun and Friends

2011-06-07T10:06:00.002+12:00

Donal and Emily reading a story together.

Emily's new look, fauxhawk with sweet and sour meatball sauce for extra hold.

Emily and Grandy, sharing a joke

Nanny, Grandy and Emily

Old age...

2011-06-01T21:40:00.002+12:00

You know you are getting old when...
1) You wear your shirt inside out for most of the day before you notice. And even then, you decide, "meh, it can stay that way".
2) You get really excited to use your new can opener, because it is all ergonomic and magnetic and makes the chore of opening cans a breeze.
3) You enjoy listening to the Solid Gold Hits radio station because the hits of yesterday are all songs you know the lyrics to.

Of course, I am not old yet and am only sensitive to these geriatric indicators because my spouse is getting on in years.

Wednesday fun with Bryce

2011-05-28T08:48:00.004+12:00

Here is some video from one of Bryce's Wednesday night rides, riding Ho Chi Ming trail in the Akatarawa hills not far from home. I'm the rider in front of the camera guy for the first half of the descent, (red backpack, white bike), in fact the rider you can see in the frame below.

Thanks to big Peter Woodman-Aldridge for the video.

Meals are getting messier.

2011-05-15T18:57:00.002+12:00

My baby girl is growing up so fast. She has decided to wants to start using product in her hair. Ketchup has given some good effect but her use of mayo really brings out her curls.

I thought we were getting past the messy meal time but I was clearly mistaken. Oh, how wrong I was. No pics to add, but I can confirm that I am becoming extremely adept at catching food before it falls from Emily's hands, bringing it under her high chair tray and then slipping it back into her bowl without her looking. I think she thinks our carpet is a cat that needs feeding.

Em's first bike race

2011-05-01T21:04:00.010+12:00

At 1 year old it was time for Emily's first bike race. To start the MTB orienteering series there is a "brownie" race, so called because by taking the kids to the race you earn brownie points allowing you to get out to events later in the year!

Map on board, and we were off.

Emily's navigation was top notch, finding good fast lines.

Seemed like Em enjoyed the race, had some good lip vibrating "brrrr" type moments, which is obviously the sound of good fast riding as that's what I've taught her to say when riding fast.

As with all good races, the post finish line feast was a good one.

Adelaide....

2011-04-27T11:14:00.008+12:00

We just got back from Kirst and Ant's wedding in Adelaide. We were there for 10 days and had glorious weather at the start of the holiday with some cooler nights and rain near the end. Their wedding was in a little seaside community called Carrickalinga, where we had also rented a bach/cottage with Pam, Andrew, and Quintin. So we got to spend most of the holiday in this little village, walking on the beach every morning, swimming, seeing dolphins swim by - it was excellent. Especially one night, when we were all down at the beach, sipping on a local micro-brewery beer, and watching Ant swim, when Bryce said, "the only thing that could make this more perfect would be if some dolphins swam by", and on cue, three dolphins appeared in the water and gave us a bit of a show.
This picture shows the dolphins that come on command, in Carrickalinga. A beautiful beach.

Here is the sunset that night.

Emily continued to be a good traveller, not letting jetlag affect her too much. She was pretty wriggly from Wellington to Sydney, but was tired out for the next flight (after lots and lots of walking and waving at strangers in the Sydney airport) and slept on Mommy the entire way.
Emily's sticker says "SECURITY SCREENED". Customs was pleased that she was not smuggling anything in through the border, except maybe in the diaper....

Kirstin and Ant had a beautiful wedding. They got married just below the steps to the beach, where Ant proposed to her, and where they spend every other weekend. After the ceremony, they had miniature orders of fish and chips for all the guests to nibble on, before everyone jumped onto the "party bus" to sing songs along with Andrew's guitar on the way to the reception at a winery. Bryce and I had to skip the party bus, so that if Emily couldn't handle the reception, we had an escape route. She was pretty good though, and fell asleep in her stroller beside the head table so Bryce and I were able to enjoy the reception.

The next day we went to Ant's parents house for a brunch, and caught this photo of a spider, that had spun his web above the archway we all walked under (but did not notice until later). This fella is a 'golden orb' (aka 'massive creepy spider').

Pleasingly, we saw no other big spiders on the rest of our trip. We did however, watch snakes get fed, fed kangaroos from our hands and Bryce got a fright from a Tasmanian Devil. However, all those animal encounters were at a wildlife sanctuary and not in the wild. These photos are of the wildlife sanctuary, with our friend April, Nick and Zoe, who is the same age as Emily.

We did go camping though, which allayed our fears about camping with a toddler. She was awesome and slept really well, waking up only once at 4am, but easily appeased with a bottle. It probably helped that Kirst and Ant set us up in camping style with mattresses and duvets ("dooners") in the tent.

(SIDE NOTE: Everything in Adelaide, and maybe Australia is shortened or nicknamed. I figure it must be like people trying to get used to a cockney friend. Kirst said something like "don't worry, we have some dooners for you to camp with, and we will have some snags tonight or maybe a sanga". I was lost. Snags=Sausages, sanga=sandwich. Ah, right. Gotcha.)
This is the view we had in the morning, at our campsite, with the smoke from the fire moving through the stringy bark gum trees.

This is a shot of breakfast that day. We fed like royalty during the whole trip and camping was no exception. I especially liked the wasabi cheese, thick natural yogurt, and alcoholic root beer from the local brewery and the local red wines. Not all together, mind you - oh, and they have dill pickles in Australia, which I missed OH SO MUCH! What a treat. Only went through 3 jars in 10 days. I thought it was best to hold back a bit.

Emily enjoyed living with flatmates. By the end of the week, she was able to look at people when we said their name, and give her toys to the right person when we asked her to walk them over to someone. She is saying more words now, like "Lala - for Pam, "na-na-na" for banana, "ooh" for kangaroo. She is a very friendly little girl, often overly so, where she will go up to strange children and just bend over to kiss them, but it looks more like she is worshiping them. They often don't know what to do, and by the time she is finished her demonstration of love, she has lost interest and is walking off again, leaving the poor boy or girl a bit confused. But nicely so, I'm sure.
Emily really enjoyed having the guitar around and even had a chance to play with it a little with Quintin. She enjoyed watching him play and let her touch the strings.

Here is a photo of Emily, the guitar groupie with Andrew on the front deck of our rented cottage.

Here she is in her new puddle jumpers that Pam and Andrew bought for her birthday. Perfect for camping and getting dirty in.

Great holiday. Loved it. Loved our first true holiday as a family, with a child who could explore, not just sit on your lap and look cute. Although, she still did lots of that too. What I learned? Always take extra food with you, sand does taste good to eat (at least Emily thinks so), children are more adaptable than you think, and if your child won't sleep in the plane - have a glass of wine and patience will blissfully wash over you.

A year has passed....

2011-04-12T08:41:00.001+12:00

The Evolution of Laughter from Candace K on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Making lemons into lemonade...

2011-04-07T16:42:00.000+12:00

I am amazed at how skillful these guys are and how they see skating opportunity amidst the destruction of their city.

The house needs a new round of child proofing.

2011-03-29T23:00:00.000+13:00

Wow, take a little girls first steps and add 10 days!

Emily walking (first steps plus 10 days) from Candace K on Vimeo.

Stupid product design - Microwaves

2011-03-29T22:38:00.001+13:00

In our kitchen the microwave is located under the bench top, perfectly situated at Emily height. Upon trying to use said microwave I discovered the screen showing "child". Was this some warning from the mighty powers within the machine that it was watching us? Was it going to say Adult next, did it know my name? Is this the start of the machines taking over?

Fortunately, it turns out that the microwave was only locked in child proof mode, but how did this happen. Asking all in the house that had a grasp on the English language (ie everyone except the 11 month old) whether they had set the child lock, resulted in negative replies all round.

So who had done this? Little Emily scoots over to check out what daddy is looking at and starts pushing buttons, interestingly the same button repeatedly.

Out comes the owners manual to find out how to set, and more importantly unset the child lock. To set, press the "Start" button three times, to unset, press the "stop" button threes times. Rocket science!

I don't know what the product designers were thinking when that they came up with that inspired keystroke sequence, but it is perfectly clear that they do not have a single child between them. If I have learned one thing in my short time parenting, it is that a child (particularly ours) will press the same button over and over when said button emits a satisfying beep when pressed.

Hopefully she doesn't learn the unset sequence, but I'm not confident in that one.

Walking practice

2011-03-29T21:49:00.001+13:00

Little Emily is getting some great walking practice in, and now is not keen to stay sitting on the ground! Who is smiling more, Emily or mum?

This babe was made for walking....

2011-03-17T22:04:00.000+13:00

We have been helping Emily walk between Bryce and I for a few weeks now, but until tonight, she has never taken unassisted steps. We were anticipating the first steps anyday now, so we grabbed the camera fortunately at just the right time to record it all.
Enjoy! We sure did.

Emily's first steps from Candace K on Vimeo.

Almost a whole year.

2011-03-14T21:40:00.000+13:00

Continuing the theme of taking the monthly image with George the bear; Emily now won't sit still long enough to get the photo. It is the first of the standing images I guess.

Emily hadn't really seen TV until the Christchurch earthquake last month, when we were glued to the evening news trying to comprehend the devastation. Emily had worked out within 30mins that the remote control was the key to this new world and now carries one with her whenever possible.

When all else fails.

2011-03-14T21:29:00.000+13:00

When the feeder gets sick of the kid spitting food back at you, and all normal distraction methods have failed, it's on to extreme measures. Bust out the lap top, find Tigger and Pooh on youtube and voila, instantly no more spitting.

I've never seen anything like it, from full power spitting "there is no way I'm going to eat this" to "I'll eat anything you put in my mouth" in a couple of seconds. You will note the feeder is appropriately attired with cooking apron, plus the laptop keyboard is fully covered in protection ready mode.

Bike ride number one.

2011-03-14T21:16:00.000+13:00

Now that we have got little Emily a helmet (and it's still too big) it was out for the inaugural family bike ride.

Well into the ride, and taking a close look at the image you can see that Emily is a happy passenger, and Candace is a concerned looking pilot.

One happy passenger.

Baby Backpacking....

2011-03-01T22:50:00.000+13:00

We went for a wee tramp on the weekend with our friends Guy and Cheryl and their little girl Mia. Both families just recently purchased some Macpac baby carriers and were eager to try them out in the bush, so we found a flattish trail and went for it.
New Zealand bush never fails to impress as you can see with the beautiful hues of green moss, luscious ferns and intricately weaved branches on the trees.

Mia and Emily enjoyed their picnic together, even pausing at one stage to give each other a back rub.

However, Mia tuckered herself out with all the excitement on Daddy's back and decided to have a small rest from all the tough tramping.

We had a great time and Emily liked being out of the stroller on our adventure, and seeing everything from adult height. She waved at alot of things in the forest and would check everything out when Bryce stopped to let her touch the moss and the trees.
Many more adventures to come.

I love my blanket

2011-02-22T21:22:00.000+13:00

Emily had a bit of a freak out the other night which had us thinking she was cracking some more teeth or something similar. Turns out she just wanted her favourite blanket which was being washed. Once she got it back, she gave it the love.

Ta-daa!!

2011-02-17T07:37:00.000+13:00

Emily's first self propelled bike ride from Candace K on Vimeo.

How to make a father happy.

2011-02-16T23:26:00.001+13:00

Little Emily hasn't mastered walking on her own, but with the help of handlebars...

Total solo distance covered in the first training session, 2m before crashing sideways to the grass.

Interval training is proving to be the best strategy at 10 months. Case in point, stair climbing. She can go all out for about 15 stairs, but then takes a break and holds on the the next step with her teeth, all four of them.

10 Months!

2011-02-16T23:20:00.000+13:00

It's getting hard to take the photo. 10 months old and growing up fast.

She can finally ride, well almost...

2011-02-12T17:58:00.000+13:00

Bryce has bought Emily her first bike seat and took her around the lounge (in his arms) and backyard (on the bike) in the seat today. She seems excited to be sitting in it, although she has no idea what it's all about. But it sure makes her Daddy excited so she laughs alot because he is laughing. We are just awaiting the helmet to arrive and the entire family will finally be on bikes!

Bryce and his business colleague/friend Bruno-Luc from Quebec after a visit this week. We have discovered that not only do these two men get along really well, but they both are very particular about their "belongings" and find frustration when their routine gets messed around; such as the peanut butter in the cupboard being put in the wrong place! Fascinating to listen to these two confide in each other all their little idiosyncracies.

This is the after shot, of our daughter feeding herself 2 blackberries. I couldn't believe only 2 berries could make this much mess.

Our cat is finding more and more unique sleeping hideaways to relax without fear of being grabbed at by a toddler.

Our summer holiday

2011-01-28T14:01:00.000+13:00

We headed up north to a place called Whanarua Bay, in the East Cape of New Zealand for our holiday this year - with our good friends Mark, Rachel and their daughter Holly. It was a great week filled with good food, lots of beach time, games, laughs and amazement watching the girls play together and learn from each other. It was fantastic because Emily and Holly synchronized their nap times and that made it really easy for us parents to get good workouts and bike rides done while the girls slept in the morning. Then we would all go have lunch on the beach and play in the sand and waves and then the afternoon nap would allow some book reading or just chillin out. The Mojitos usually made an appearance sometime after that. Pretty tough schedule really!

The view from the deck of our bach (aka cottage)

Mark, Rachel and Holly - our fellow vacationers

A game of BLOW FOOTBALL between Bryce and I - harder than it looks

The boys doing the morning shift, letting the mommies have a sleep-in

The open plan lounge/kitchen/puzzle center/dance floor at the cottage

Interesting picture below. You may have to zoom in on the hind region of this specimen to get the full appreciation of the picture. I found some car keys sitting beside me on the beach and just about to get swept up in the waves. As we left the beach, we were contemplating what to do with these keys when this woman came running up to check the spot we had just been at. We asked her if she was looking for keys and she was surprised and then immediately relieved when she saw us holding them (must have fallen out of her bakcpack). Anyway, she skipped off happily and we all went on with our day, until....we looked a little closer at her backside. Turns out her keys weren't the only thing she forgot that day.

Bryce and Emily on his shoulder - he likes carrying her around but recently she has taken to sticking her fingers deep into his ears when on his shoulders, so it is not the most comfortable position for him. You'd think she would just take hold of his 'fro instead.

This is the dairy (convenience store) that was in the movie "Boy". With Bryce's encouragement, I admit I did re-enact some of the scenes by doing my own Michael Jackson moves in front of the store. I am sure Emily is glad she doesn't know yet how to be embarrassed of her parents.

Dinner and wine on the deck at the cottage. A beautiful view!

Emily and Holly - great friends and fellow connoiseurs of the '70's mix tape we found in the tape recorder. Both girls got their groove on all week, to the same 'wonderful' songs.

Holly and Emily in their beach attire

This is Emily trying endlessly to get on this shelf. She would climb onto it and then get upset because she was then stuck and couldn't sit up or turn; but then when we rescued her, she would go right back to climbing onto it again. She was simply drawn to the shelf....

A tired girl after all the excitement of the holiday

This is the 9 month picture (only about 2 weeks late though). George the bear is sure getting smaller with every month picture we take

Our little girl

2011-01-12T20:37:00.001+13:00

Emily and her friends Cara and Sophie

Emily is on the move - we now have crawling races, and chases, and lots and lots of "house-al defence" - as in constantly protecting the rest of the house from Emily the crawling conqueror.

Fun times in 2011

2011-01-05T20:24:00.000+13:00

Emily and Daddy playing on the 'rocking elephant'

Mommy got bored and decided that Emily's hair was now long enough to play with

This is what she looked like after we took the pigtails out

Emily in our bean bag

This one is for Nana, the outfit she got Em for Christmas - so cute

Christmas Day

2011-01-01T11:48:00.000+13:00

Christmas Day at Trish and Craig's farm is always a fun and exciting time, and this year was no exception. Besides Emily and I trying to conquer a cold, we
enjoyed Christms weekend with John, Cushla, Trish, Craig and the kids Sammy and Henry, and Craig's mother Gladys. Christmas morning was fun; especially watching Emily soak in all the chaos of present opening. She managed very well, and although had no real idea of what was going on, absorbed enough of the excitement to nap really well all day.

On Boxing Day, we helped draft sheep with Craig and Trish. Drafting is the process of getting all the ewes and lambs into sheep pens and then pushing them through bunch by bunch until you have separated all the lambs from their moms. It is a bit sad to hear all the sheep crying out for their babies or moms but it's the "way of the farm". All of the sheep were being shorn ("sheared?") the next day so the wool needed to be separated between new lambs wool and old ewe wool. I enjoyed helping to move the sheep all around and trying to use my best imitation "dog bark" to assist my canine co-workers, we got the job done pretty smoothly! Emily joined us in her stroller and liked watching all the sheep moving around, but soon was over it and wanted a quiet place to nap. So I decided to take her back to the house for a nap. Craig asked me to go to the 4 wheeler and get the "rattle". I told him not to worry, as Emily didn't need it because she was gonna go back to the house. He looked at me weird, and said again "but if you just grab it, its on the steering wheel". I figured he hadn't heard me so said, "that's alright, I will just take Emily home for a nap". As I moved Emily's stroller out of the yards, Bryce came to help carry Em's stroller over a fence. He then walked over to the 4-wheeler and grabbed a rattle-like thing and I said,"whats that?". He said, "its a sheep rattle to use to move the sheep around the pen!". Oh, so Craig wanted the rattle for the sheep, not Emily......duh.
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December plods on...

2010-12-22T20:59:00.000+13:00

We have entered a new stage with our lil girl. One where she no longer stays in the same place you leave her in. In her crib/cot, she is put to bed with her feet touching the end of the cot nicely tucked under her covers; in the morning, she is usually squished up on her side or tummy against the crib bars on the other side of the bed. What she must get up to in the middle of the night would be interesting to watch!
Here is a picture we took of a cute outfit we bought to give to a friend's newborn. Unfortunately, it is even too big for Emily so a newborn would be swimming in it. Good halloween costume, I guess.

This is our 8 1/2 month old daughter playing with matches. We don't see any problem with this.

(just kidding)

Bryce had his big bad birthday (they seem to feel bigger and badder for him as the years keep accumulating) last weekend. Kim and John brought over yummy sangrias to enjoy and make him feel like a young man! Great company and a great night!

8 months old

2010-12-13T15:25:00.000+13:00

Emily is 8 months old and has two little buds for teeth on the bottom. They have been buds for about 2 weeks now and we are awaiting the tooth breakthrough where she begins to look like a old bag woman. She is mastering the backwards commando crawl, and can spin 360 degrees on her tummy to get at the toys in her vicinity. Anything outside of that and she just looks at the toy and then looks at you and then looks at the toy, until you can't bear to keep it away from that cute face any longer. She is definitely getting stronger on her legs and just loves standing whenever we hold her.

This is Emily with her friend Mia. Emily really enjoys spending time in the water, whether it is the bath, the pool or the ocean. Anything she can splash in is fine for Em. She is getting more adventurous as well and is keen to move forward onto her tummy to get at things in the water, not realising the implications of going face first into the water. This is still a lesson she has yet to learn. We have had many face first episodes in the water so far, but it's all gonna help her get used to it, I guess. Lots of swallowing water then gasping and choking for a few seconds afterwards.

This pic is of a diaper box we got that has pieces you can punch out to make a car. She likes sitting in it and getting pushed around the lounge. Emily just puts her hands in her lap, like a civilised living room commuter, and just sits back and checks out the scene. No squeals of excitement, no flapping of arms or reaching out for things. It's like she imposes her own "seatbelt rule" and does what every roller coaster operator at Canada's Wonderland implanted into my young teenaged brain - "Keep your head, arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times....and enjoooooy the riiiiiide!"

Daddy-Daughter time

2010-12-06T10:04:00.000+13:00

Em and Bryce chilling out

Emily and her friend Mia (right after Mia stopped trying to eat Emily's hair and Emily stopped trying to hit Mia in the head with a tambourine)

Holly and Emily

Holly's Daddy Mark and Holly enjoying the rocking 'elephant'

Clare and Emily after a fun afternoon sampling the food and wine at the local Food Fair

Emily especially enjoyed the white bread pieces that are used for taste testing dips. At least we thought she enjoyed them. About 10 minutes later, she sneezed and several small pieces she ate flew out of her mouth that I thought had been swallowed. Kind of gross, but I seem to be getting over my grossness of fluids that come from my child!

Emily and Bryce cooling off in the river near our house. It has been so hot here lately and just overall beautiful summer weather! A big change from the December's I am used to in Toronto!

And finally, a sequence of photos from Daddy/Emily cuddle time.

I love this shot!

When finger painting goes bad

2010-12-05T15:41:00.000+13:00

The sun is shining!

2010-11-29T14:35:00.000+13:00

We are really enjoying the spring and it is feeling more like summer is closer every day. It is our first summer as parents and when you are experiencing a first summer with your infant, everything is just a bit more exciting! Emily had a visit to the beach with her friend Mia yesterday (and Mia's parents, Guy and Cheryl), and enjoyed sitting in the water and avoiding the waves with Daddy. Mind you, Bryce didn't really try to avoid any; he was more interested in showing Emily how to body surf the waves.

I think she just enjoyed being along for the ride in Daddy's arms! Bryce is sporting a great cycle tan, courtesy of the ride he took in the morning (although Bryce tends to have a cycle tan most of the year anyway). Bryce and Em had the morning to themselves, and I went out for a ride myself up one of our local hills. So tough, but nice to feel intense muscle work again! Walking with the buggy just doesn't quite get the lactic acid burn we so enjoy!

On Saturday, we visited John and Cushla for the day, along with catching the tail-end of Henry's cricket game. It was nice to see Rob, Rachel, Henry and Charlotte; and Henry and Charlotte really enjoyed playing with Emily. They made her smile all afternoon and sang songs to her if she got a little grumpy which changed her mood around quickly.

Bryce and I have been competing for crazy dreams lately. I seem to be almost over by nightly-nightmare of Em being squished under Bryce in our bed (only have it about 1x a week now!). Bryce, however, had a dream the other night that there was a cashier stand at the bottom of our driveway and he tried to take a pinecone from the yard, but the cashier wouldn't let him go anywhere without paying $2 for it; despite his protests that the pinecone was from HIS yard. I think the lawn is doing his head in, at the moment. Now that we have SUN on our grass and the moss that had overtaken our back yard is dying away, Bryce is now quite aware that he wants his beautiful velvety green lawn back that he had a few years ago.

This picture is of Emily in a gown we found in Bryce's baby stuff, and the plastic teddy bear is his old one as well. They sure made things that last, back then! It is some hardy plastic.

Before and after

2010-11-21T21:42:00.000+13:00

We had a stand of 9 pine trees on our neighbours property cut down last month. The trees basically stood between us and the sun for half of the day, and fully blocked the sun from our house during winter.

The view from the deck. The before image doesn't convey the full height of the trees, they were HUGE.

From the back lawn the height of the trees is a bit more apparent. The lawn was full of moss due to being semi-permanently in the shade, a couple of weeks of sun and the moss is dying off fast.

From the side of the house the full height of the trees can be seen, dwarfing the house.

And now all we have is blue sky!

The "shadow" becomes firewood

2010-11-14T19:29:00.000+13:00

The past month has seen great change at home. Full details on the before and after shots will come at some point however it's worth noting the work in progress. We've had a stand of 9 huge pine trees cut down on our neighbours property, trees that lay between our house and the sun for most of the year.

The trees were dropped and cut into firewood length rounds by a tree contractor, and the neighbour and Bryce have been doing the hard yards splitting the rounds into firewood using a hydraulic splitter. Two full workdays done and we are about three quarters of the way through the pile.

Then there is the fun task of stacking, well supervised by the house chief.

7 months and growing fast

2010-11-14T19:10:00.000+13:00

It's getting harder each month to take this photo lying down, so we've switched to sitting. All is good for a moment before the lack of toys within arms reach means that the "7 months" sign becomes very interesting.

Free time? What is that?

2010-11-09T15:56:00.000+13:00

Amidst the craziness of a 6 month old with a cold, volleyball season and having all the titanic trees cut down in our backyard, it has been hard to find time to do much of anything else. Happy to say that Em is on the mend, and weathered her first cold well. I had a minor sad moment after trying getting her back to sleep one night and she was having such a hard time breathing from the coughing and snuffly nose. You really do realize how much they are a part of you when they are sick and you can't take the discomfort away for them.

My volleyball team at the College is doing very well. We have made it into the finals for the top division in Wellington and have been undefeated until now. They are a great bunch of girls who have a lot of energy and spirit, and fantastic skill. It has been amazing seeing them grow and improve for the past 4 years.

I have had my own success in the past week: first, being shortlisted into a group of 3 for the Wellington Coach of the Year for College (highschool) sport, and then second, for actually winning the award and receiving a trophy at an awards ceremony on Sunday.

It was a very exciting night and I was thrilled (and very surprised) to have won above all the other fabulous coaches around Wellington. It was weird, as this year, I have been pregnant, or away from school with Emily, so I hadn't felt like I had done as much as other years for the Volleyball programme. However, the announcer who outlined my accomplishments at the ceremony addressed the past 8 years of work I had put into the Volleyball program at school; so I felt a bit more worthy then!

Bryce is busy being "Head Parent in charge of Bedtime" around here. With my volleyball practices twice a week and games, he has got Emily's bedtime routine down to an art, and enjoys telling me when I get home how he found a new way to settle her, if she wakes up at all.

Emily is becoming more active and really enjoys sitting on her own and taking toys out of containers or boxes. Our little girl is quite the independent player; although she always prefers to go outside and watch what everyone else is doing too. She will be 7 months old this weekend; amazing how fast she is changing!

Our "new" house

2010-10-31T11:57:00.000+13:00

Here is a picture from yesterday when John and Cushla came to visit us and see the new addition of sky to our house! We had several MASSIVE pine trees cut down and now we have no enclosure alongside our back fence and no more shade! We have lots of sunlight and our view now encompasses a rural field beside us that is just so much nicer than looking at a wall of trees. We are thrilled with the change; it feels like we have a holiday home now! The extra sun might be a bit harsh in the depth of summer, but it will be so much brighter in winter.

Emily's first swing.

2010-10-31T11:14:00.001+13:00

Emily's first ride in a swing from Candace K on Vimeo.

Rotorua and Single Speed World Champs weekend

2010-10-27T09:08:00.000+13:00

Last weekend we visited Mark, Rachel and Holly in Rotorua, so that the boys could compete in the World Single Speed Mountain Bike Champs. Basically, 1000 riders, from about 30 countries, who almost all dress up like weirdos and ride 40ish km on bikes with only one gear. Oh, and if they want to take short cuts in the race, there are places to do so, but you must either drink/chug a beer to earn that shortcut, or if you don't drink you have to down a small bottle of concentrated Redbull. You know, pretty standard athletic endeavour!
The boys dressed like horse jockeys. Note the extra effort the boys put into putting horses on their handlebars, and the white women's tights they wore as riding pants. I had thought I might take the tights over from Bryce after a good wash, but as muddy bum bike stains, don't come out very well, I have taken a pass from inheriting the tights. Dirty bum on white pants is not a good look, outside of the bike trails.
From left: Bryce, Joel, Mark and Carl

Emily, the gangsta rapper: "take heed, cuz I'm a lyrical poet; Daddy's hat's on my head, just in case you didn't know it"

Emily, the avid bike race supporter. She even called out at the riders as they went past. It sounded more like "ah yaah, ah yaah yaah, blllbb bbaaah", but I know that means "Go Daddy!"

We were able to crash a family get together that Pam and Andrew had in Turangi on our long drive home; and visited with them for a little bit. It was good to break up the long drive and because we don't get to Tauranga that often, we will take Pam and Andrew time however we can!

I did it!

2010-10-21T07:58:00.000+13:00

So, after about 22 years of having long enough hair to put in a ponytail and looking like I am 18 for almost all of that time (despite an older looking face), I have finally cut it all off (most of it anyway). I could have gone more drastic and maybe that is the next step. I am not against going back to long hair in the future and as some friends have pointed out, I am just taking a "holiday" from my hair! We shall see how soon I try to grow it out again though. For now, its fun and light and will take so much less time!
Before the cut:

The vast amount of hair that was cut; it doesn't look really long here, but it sure was a mound of thickness that is gone!

After:

I think I look more like a "Mrs" now than before.

Em playing with her maracas

2010-10-19T21:54:00.001+13:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZzFW2yxQOI

Emily is 4344 hours old!

2010-10-15T21:07:00.000+13:00

So Emily has reached her 6 month birthday and like clockwork, the skills have increased! She is sitting up, unsupported, as of yesterday and it is so nice to have her upright when playing with her, and not strapped to something! Her favourite activity at the moment seems to be sitting up, with rattles in her hands, which she shakes up and down and bangs them together like a violent rock musician.
She went swimming the other day and we avoided a poo disaster in the pool by about 30 minutes! I am so glad that we were not the ones who had the pool closed down, but as this particular fecal dropping was not so much of a dropping but a melliflual or aqueous substance, I consider us lucky. I am not sure of the swimmers she was wearing could have withheld that sort of entity!
For those of you who have been reading the blog for months now, you will notice she is getting much bigger than George, the bear in her monthly photos!

Cushla and John visit and Thanksgiving

2010-10-15T20:43:00.000+13:00

Last Saturday, John and Cushla came to visit and see Emily and our clever little girl decided to learn how to roll from her front to her back just before they got here; so she had some performing to do once they arrived. Its always nice to see them and nice for Emily too.

On the Sunday, Bryce did a 50km mountain bike race (although he didn't know it was 50km when he started, as it was just do as many laps as you can do in 3 hours). He rode really well and came in 2nd, and also won a major spot prize of a membership to a local gym. Pretty exciting to hear his name called out for the big prize. Not sure whether we will use it though or give it away as Bryce is not much for fitness classes and although I am, the times will be hard to fit into our schedule.

I am still struggling with my nightly dream sequence which involves me dreaming about Emily being in bed with us, and my worry beginning that we are going to roll over and suffocate her. Keep in mind, she hasn't been in our bed since she was about 3 weeks old, and even then, she only ever slept on our chests, for an hour or so.
So since I have been having this dream at least 5 or 6 nights a week, Bryce has been getting increasingly aware of what I am doing during the night; as I search up and down the side of his body, in my slumber, looking for my daughter (who I am convinced is in the bed with us). Once he says something to me, I usually wake up enough to stop searching and just go back to sleep. However, I have now started recognizing that I am doing this and will rebut Bryce when he tells me "she's not here!" The other night, I said to him, after he told me she wasn't in bed with us, "Yeah, I know she's not, but she is". Two nights ago, my rebuttal was "Yeah, I know, but I am just protecting her head from your elbow"....even though I had grabbed Bryce's elbow thinking it was Emily's head.
Some deep seeded worry in my sub-conscious I guess. Wonder when it will stop! Maybe as she sleeps through the night more often?

So, back to the rest of Sunday: we had Thanksgiving dinner here, kiwi styles! It was the first time we had hosted a bigger group for lunch or dinner and having never tried to do a thanksgiving or Christmas dinner very much I was a bit nervous for it all being timed correctly. Our friends John and Kim and their children Jackson and Anika came over, along with Guy, Cheryl and Mia, and Clare and Brent. The food was great and the schwarties (mom's family favourite potato dish) I made were yummy!

We tried putting Emily and Mia in the bath together as we got them ready for bed, but as I jumped up to get the camera, Emily got upset at me running off and there were only tears left behind in the bath! Mia was loving being in the bath with someone else though!

It seems that our lil girl is more of a boys girl and is a bit of a flirt. She is extra interested in boys (of any age) and gives them more smiles than any female.
(Much like her mother was as a teenager, but it started a bit later for her!)
Anyway, Thanksgiving was good times, around great friends and it was nice to feel like there was a touch of Canadiana here in NZ, knowing all the Canucks back home were celebrating too!

Commonwealth Games spectating

2010-10-07T22:00:00.000+13:00

Emily has become a full time sports supporter for the Commonwealth Games (or as Candace puts it the "Common man roll up and have a go games") fully decked out in her Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics gear. Looks like we need to get the matching kiwi supporters gear, though the New Zealand traditional black is no where near as cool as the Canadian Red.

From big roads to little floods

2010-10-01T21:39:00.001+13:00

We departed the land of big roads and headed back to little old NZ and our sweet little house. (and yes that is a 19 lane highway if you look carefully and count all the on/off ramps!)

A couple of days after we get home we had a day of solid unrelenting rain. Anyone that knows anything about our driveway knows that in serious rain, the water flowing down the drive takes all the crushed limestone with it leaving rain ruts ready to be fixed.

Here is a previous fix.

Well this time the rain eased but the amount of water flowing down the drive did not. A bit of an explore found that we had sprung a new spring in the middle of the drive, with plenty of water flowing out from the ground, and down the drive.

Morning arrived and the help call was made to great friend John the Plumber. Surprisingly it had stopped raining at this stage making finding the leak pretty easy, just dig where the water was flowing from. The more we dug, the more water flowed out of the growing hole in the drive.

This photo is not quite the truth, John did all the work, all I did was fill in the hole.

One fixed mains water pipe.

At the end of the day Emily seemed pretty happy to not have a spring in the driveway.

Back to Kiwi land

2010-09-28T13:30:00.000+13:00

Well, well, well. Here we are back home in New Zealand. What a whirlwind 5 1/2 weeks it was but so amazing to see everyone and to introduce Emily to everybody. It was great also to dress her up in summer clothes and take her swimming in the pool and at the beach. It will be interesting to see how much different she is in the water here, when it gets warm enough. She will be about 4 months older and will be much more wriggly, I bet!

We had a ton of fun and learned alot about how Emily works. There were a few times where I had to cancel plans or pull back on what we were doing because I learned that she would get a bit miserable if we travelled around too much, but in general we took Emily out heaps and she was very tolerant. She even enjoyed it I think. Yesterday, she had a bad day fighting the jet lag, until we went to Bryce's work and she saw other people. She smiled for everyone! So I wonder if she was just understimulated at home for the first time in over a month and wanted to be out doing stuff!

Emily is 5 months old

2010-09-15T12:14:00.000+12:00

Quick pics from Canada

2010-09-13T14:33:00.000+12:00

Candace and Emily

Poppa Ian teaching Emily the art of lawn mowing (disclaimer - lawnmower not running!)

Emily relaxing with Nana and Poppa

Juls, Sarah and Candace

Amy and Jeff at their wedding

Robyn and Laurence's wedding

Sneaking some "me time"

2010-08-25T14:37:00.000+12:00

Emily is just about over her jet lag, but I have had no "me time" in the past few days since she has not been sleeping long at all. Alas, I hope we are in for a longer sleep tonight.

We are in Ontario! That is, Emily and I are in Ontario. Poor Daddy has to go without his ladies for another few weeks until we all reconnect for Robyn's wedding.
Emily and I skyped Bryce the other night and she absolutely recognized him which was very cute. She squealed with delight and gave huge grins to Bryce on the computer screen! She doesn't really do that at all so it was awesome to see that she knows who her Daddy is.
Em slept really well on the flight from Auckland to Vancouver, including sleeping about 10 hours, on a 12 1/2hr flight! Air NZ has bassinets that you can sleep your babies in so that was very helpful. I got a bit ancy and kept checking that she was asleep but need not have worried! There were some nice Grandma's sitting beside me who were very lovely and kind and held Emily very quickly when the offer was given, and when I needed a hand.
It was great to see my Aunt Lynette, Uncle Bob and Grandpa and GrandJoan in BC. We also got to visit with cousin Krista and her daughter Phoebe (3 months old) and cousins Janet, Mike and their kids Zach, Rachel and Nathan, along with Mike and Kate. We had dinner with 13 of us at the table on Thursday night. It was lovely, as Emily, who often plays shy with strangers in NZ, just gave smiles to everyone she was passed around to!
Unfortunately, Emily and I had some sleeping issues our first night in BC. She went to sleep at 9:30 and then woke at 10:15. I tried to feed her and put her back to sleep but she was not interested in sleeping, but only eating. I had no more milk for her and since we had not used formula ever, I had nothing to give her. My aunt and uncle were already fast asleep and when I called out to them to try to wake them, all I heard was snoring. So I pushed on and thought I could fill up her tummy with water. So I boiled some water and as I began to give her some water I remembered reading something about it being unsafe to give babies too much water so as not to give them a water imbalance in their system. I was not sure how much water was too much so I stopped feeding her the water and texted some friends in NZ to try to get some help. I was overtired and frantic from all the crying at this stage, so I called Bryce. He did not know how to help me, except to try to get me to tell him about the flight. I was not in the mood to chat really, just to get Emily to sleep so I got more upset. I received a text that said try some mashed banana. I went to the fruit bowl which was full but had no bananas. As I searched through the bowl, I then found a banana and for the moment, I had this feeling like "yes, we have a BANANA! I can feed her!! She will sleep! I will sleep!" and then.....I realized it was just a piece of wooden fruit! I cried out loud in a childhood whiny voice, "oh no...its just a wood banana!" I was broken! I then proceeded to try to puree some apples, which I cooked in the microwave and then pushed through a sieve. I got about 1/2 tsp of apple and fed it to her. She liked it; the little bit she actually got in her mouth and stopped crying. I put her in her portacot and walked away. 2 minutes later, she started crying again....and so did I.

So I realized I needed help and went in and tried to wake my aunt and uncle, who I couldnt differentiate (as I stood at the foot of their bed) which snoring person was my aunt. I finally picked a side of the bed and went to wake her up. She got up and helped me by taking Emily and then waking up my uncle and telling him he needed to go to the store with me to get some formula. You can imagine he was a bit surprised at the request at 12:30am! Lynette, in her wisdom knew that the formula would help, but it was more important to get EMily and I seperated so that I could calm down and not upset Emily further. By the time Bob and I got back from the store, Emily was asleep! What a mission!
Sidenote: we tried the formula the next day just to be sure EMily would take it if the same thing happened the next night and just as my mom finished pouring it in the bottle, she knocked over the rest of it and the rest of the formula was gone. So, Aunt Lynette looked at Bob and sent him back to the store to get some more....just in case. I think he was okay with that though, as the alternative would be another late night store outing!
So we thanked the BC crew immensely for helping us get through our first nighttime travel disaster and so far we have had no repeats here in Ontario. Mom and I had a great flight with Emily from Vancouver to Toronto. Although Emily was responsible for slowing down the de-planing line as people stopped to look at her and smile and she gave everyone a big grin. What a cutie!
We have really enjoyed being with Poppa and Nana, who are getting lots of cuddles from Emily. Em will ALWAYS give Poppa a big smile, even when she has been upset prior to his attempts to make her smile. My Dad's just got something that all babies just love about him!
Today Emily went in a pool for the first time. She was tentative at first, in action only; she didn't cry at all. Then she just wanted to get back in, so I got in the pool too and she loved being on her tummy and kickin her legs. She has changed from hating her baths in NZ to loving baths and the pool here. Maybe our nights of screaming baths are over.....for now at least!
Amy's wedding is this weekend, so that will be a big test for mother and daughter, as I will be away from her most of the day. Poppa and Nana are babysitting all day and will attempt to bring her over to me amidst the wedding day plans to give Emily some Mommy time (and milk!). So excited for Amy and Jeff's wedding though. It is going to be fantastic!
More stories to come.

4 months old!

2010-08-13T10:58:00.001+12:00

Here is Emily's 4 month picture with George the bear. She is definitely outgrown his height now and getting lil chubby legs now that are very cute. Even though she has gotten bigger, she still is a light weight and we are trying to give her a bit more food. A bit hard when all she drinks is milk. We are beginning the whole "when to start solids" debate with her. I am not in any rush to start her eating "real food" as she is messy enough with her milk; I can just imagine how overly excited she will be when she gets her hands all through her food!
We met up with some of the coffee group (antenatal class) on Thursday and took the "baby lineup photo". The babies are getting bigger and we will need to change the way we do the photo soon to fit them all in! It sure is cool to watch the other babies grow and how much they all change between our get togethers. The ladies in the group are wonderful and I find them very supportive and good fun to hang out with. It is great to have other people to confide your worries in and to get tips and tricks to use with the "drama of the week" with your own baby, because someone is the group has usually just gone through the same drama......and survived!

We went to Napier last weekend to visit Carl and Denise and catch up with lil Liam. He is growing so fast and is so intelligent! It is great to hear him say several words and identify things. He's got the greatest little stride when he is on a mission. We have really seen how quick Emily will go from being pretty stationary now to moving fast all over the place. She'll keep us on our toes, that's for sure.
On Saturday, we walked over to the local netball courts to watch Sammy play in her school netball final. Sammy played really well and they won their game, so she was pretty excited! Way to go girl!
On the Sunday we went over to Jess and Marty's place to have coffee and see their little guy Reuben. His eyes are a dreamy bright blue and so beautiful. It was nice to see them again, and we were sure to take the Daddy photo with all the new Dads and their kids. Emily and I will be in Canada for New Zealand Father's Day this year so we are going to celebrate it early with Bryce this weekend. I know Bryce is ecstatic about being a Dad and he is doing such a great job; I wouldn't want him to miss his "special day". Lucky for him, the day we chose to celebrate it on, he is riding in a Cyclocross race in the morning so it bolds well for one of his favourite days already!

This last photo is of Emily with a summer hat on, in honor of our impending trip to the North American summer. It will be fun to see how she likes the sun, and beaches and warmer weather!

I'm 113 days old.

2010-08-04T21:44:00.000+12:00

Lots of visitors!

2010-07-25T22:07:00.000+12:00

We have been fortunate to be having lots of people, from far and wide coming to see our beautiful daughter and possibly share some "weekend soup" with us, which is quickly becoming a winter tradition for us. Last weekend, Trish, Sinka, Sammy and her friend Bethan came by and had a cuddle with Emily.

Today, Pam, Andrew and Andrew's dad Hugh came for a visit and it was great to see them and eat some yummy soup.

I know it seems weird to mention soup so much, but it is truly good soup. And I know soup. It might be my second favourite meal, next to sushi. We make a trip to the farmer's market every Saturday, and that usually involves a stop at the local butcher as well. He sells bacon hocks and beef bones; the essential parts of a good Saturday veggies soup. The best part of a Saturday soup, however, is eating it on Sunday. "Saturday soup: the sequel" is a highlight of our weekends these days, besides having more laughs from Emily. Amazing how having a child makes you appreciate the little things in life, eh? ........like soup.
Another visitor we had this weekend (who thankfully did not raid our soup when it was put outside to cool) was Potsy the possum. I do believe, however that Potsy had a brother hanging around too, but we only ever saw one at a time. Bryce took our green waste out into our backyard compost heap, which is kind of in a jungle area that has massive trees and big overgrown plants. (here is a pic of myself when we were making the compost bin)
When Bryce came back in the house, his eyes were pretty wide and he said a possum had interrupted his leisurely stroll into the jungle and caught him off guard a wee bit. We don't see them around our house much, although we do hear them occasionally, so to see one was a bit unique. We went out onto the deck to try to see them with Bryce's bike lights (from the safety of our deck) but couldn't see much so the brave guy that he is, Bryce went back into the jungle to try to get a photo. Unfortunately, Potsy was camera shy and we couldn't catch one, but I borrowed this photo from the Queensland government webpage to show you what we saw. (Kirstin: I apologise for using a photo that it probably not the right breed and far off from the kind of possum we have in NZ, but it looked right to me. Too funny that we took it from an OZ webpage, when they are protected in Australia but pests here. Funnily enough, when I told the neighbour about our exciting encounter with Potsy, he asked if we had a .22 to get rid of it with!!)

We decided to get out and enjoy the sunny day today, so we headed to Queen Elizabeth park to show Emily the beach. Well, actually, she mostly saw the roof of her pram/stroller, since she slept the whole time; that is, until we had a photo shoot with her. It was just too nice of a day to show all those folks back in Canada how rough the NZ winter can be. (note the sarcasm please.....) Mind you, I did feel a pang of homesickness in the morning when I got to skype with my whole family back in Toronto for the big summer birthday party with all 8 adults and 7 kids under 6, where it was nice and summer warm...even though it was raining....

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But as you can see, we have it pretty good in New Zealand. When your winter walk can still be along the beach.......

Emily is doing well; talking lots. Well, when I say talking, I mean lots of "gaaaaah" and "oooooohhhhhhhh" and other noises that are hard to type. She is grabbing things with her hands now, still not with too much coordination but with real intent now. Our favourite thing to watch is to see her concentrate on trying to grab the stream of water that comes from a small jar we play with in the bath. She is mesmorized everytime she sees the water pour out of the jar and as she clamps her hand down on the water, she doesn't understand why she can't grab it....and of course, then put it in her mouth. This being the thing she does with everything else she grabs, these days. Yay for teething! She is going through at least 3 bibs everyday that attempt to keep the saliva off of her soaking through her layers of shirts, often ineffectively!

Cyclocross weekend

2010-07-20T18:53:00.000+12:00

Bryce competed in a Cyclocross event last weekend which involved a 30 min race around a loop track, with some obstacles in one part of the track where you have to dismount your bike and jump over them. Bryce has not been racing or riding too much lately as Daddy-duties seem to be more fun and exciting; although his Wednesday night bike ride is still a part of his week that he looks forward to.

Emily and I went along to cheer Bryce along. Craig (who works with Bryce, and is also an extremely talented photographer - he took our wedding photos) was also at the race. He was taking photos of all the riders but decided to snap a few of the Lorcet clan spectating as well.

During Bryce's race, I was talking with Craig and complaining to him that Bryce was hoping to buy a Cyclocross bike (lighter frame, thinner wheels, etc) and that I was not approving of another bike joining the fleet in our garage. Unfortunately, my complaints fell on deaf ears as Craig immediately jumped on Bryce's team and proceeded to outline all the reasons why Bryce DID need a Cyclocross bike. At this time, Bryce was racing pretty hard out and had been in 2nd place for a few laps. Craig decides, as Bryce comes past us to yell out, "Candace says that if you come first in this race, she will let you buy the Cyclocross bike!" So of course, Bryce gets excited, gives it some more steam and wins the damn race! Bryce, looking very proud of himself, walks over to me at the end of the race and says, "so you think I can get the bike??"
I have never been one to stand in the way of Bryce purchasing what he wants, but now that we are on one salary, we are both trying to cut costs here and there.
Sadly, for him, he won the race for glory alone....and no hope for a new bike.

Emily was a great spectator. She enjoyed all the colours and speed of the riders and bikes flying past her. You can imagine Bryce has already selected her first bike, and is convinced she REALLY liked to watch the bikes because she wants to ride one herself. Bryce was gutted to hear from a fellow bike enthusiast that his son is 7 and no matter how much he has tried, his son is only now just starting to enjoy riding his bike. I think it was the first time that it occurred to B that Emily MAY not be the future female Mountain bike champion that he has expected her to be!

**All photos in this post were taken by Craig Madsen, www.hedgehogphotography.co.nz

3 months!

2010-07-16T09:11:00.000+12:00

So we have hit the 3 month mark and are feeling so much better about this parenting thing. I would hesitate to say we are feeling on top of it, and she seems to be changing her routines all the time which is forcing us to stay adaptable; but much more confident than those first 6 weeks!
Here is a picture of her and her Grandma Maureen's teddy bear which we are using to gauge how big she is getting from month to month.

Last weekend we took another road trip to see John and Cushla in Palmerston North for lunch. Emily is a very good baby and is really enjoying watching everything around her now. However, when she gets tired, she can get pretty grumpy (as is expected I guess). I have this sling thing called a Moby which I wear her in and last weekend I noticed her getting tired in the cafe. So, I put her in the Moby and she fell asleep while the rest of us were able to chat in peace.

This is a picture of some of the babies from our coffee group (the group of us who took a parenting class together while we were pregnant). I invited the group around for a Buggy Walk 'N' Talk and we had a gorgeous sunny winter day blessed on us to wake in. Such a nice relief from all the rain!

I love to drool - Part 2.

2010-07-08T18:07:00.000+12:00

Its all about her....

2010-07-05T10:49:00.000+12:00

So Bryce and I have questioned whether we should change the name of the blog to something more about Emily since her life has taken over the blog considerably. However, we figure that someday, we will have more things to talk about than JUST how many bowel movements she has each day. (For those of you who are counting, we hit the 11 day hiatus last week, but supposedly that is still not something to worry about. It sure was an adventure for Mommy though to clean up after.)

Emily is 12 weeks old now just growing up so fast. She is starting to reach out and grab things on her playmat, intentionally, and gets so excited while aiming to grab them that she kicks up a storm. I think kicking seems to demonstrate that she is concentrating. She is so much more interested in things around her and will sit on a lap and just watch the world go by for long periods of time.

We have been told to appreciate this time because as soon as she is mobile, the long sitting moments will soon change to long chasing escapades! I must say, it is alot easier than it has been in the past few weeks. THe crying has become only when she needs something that we haven't anticipated. She is settling into more routines now and just a joy to be around. Mind you, when she is hungry, the whole town knows about it! She may have some operatic talent in her because she seems to be the loudest baby by far in her baby group!

She drools like she is trying to help raise the global water level on her own, and if she is held face down on our arms, you have to keep a cloth under her face or else have drool stalactites which tend to leave wet spots all over the carpet. Still, she is just too cute.

I love to drool.

2010-06-26T17:46:00.000+12:00

My anti-screaming baby shirt has magic powers, which appear to be working in this photo.

I draw your attention to my right hand...

Emily talks up a storm

2010-06-20T21:30:00.000+12:00

Here is our little girl having a chat with Mommy but then noticing that she is being recorded and gets camera shy.
We tried to catch her first laughing episode on camera yesterday but it stopped too soon. We can't wait to hear that awesome sound again! She was laughing at Eddie (our cat) who was jumping up against the patio glass door trying to get in.

For the record...as a family, we don't often make a habit of laughing at our pets' attempts to try to get in the house on a cold day....

2 months old

2010-06-13T12:18:00.000+12:00

Two months old today. My favourite things are;

Looking at the fire after having a bath
I'm fascinated by the mirror.
The chorus of "all the single ladies" when mum sings it.
Eating my hands, the right one in particular.
Apparently I'm like a hung over teenager as I can now sleep for almost thirteen hours.

Things I don't like;

Mum sneezing when I'm having a feed, sure fire screaming session will follow.

Emily's first road trip!

2010-06-07T10:56:00.000+12:00

We drove up to Wanganui this weekend to visit Nanny Cushla and Grandpa John, and we also got to see cousins Rob, Rachel, Charlotte and Henry. It was nice to see everyone and Emily was full of smiles for everyone. She even had a nap in the lounge allowing everyone to have lunch and chat uninterrupted. Good girl Emily!

Mommy Yoga

2010-05-31T09:09:00.000+12:00

I attended a postnatal yoga class on Saturday while Bryce and Emily had their first daddy-daughter date (a tradition my father and I continue still when we see each other). I know Bryce enjoyed it because he got to see her sleeping the whole time, while they hung out with other new fathers and shopped at the market for fresh fruit! Here is a pic of 2 of the other babies whose Mom's were at the class with me also. Emily is on the right, along with Mia on the left and Nathan (ladies man) in the middle. We did have them all set up holding hands, but that lasted 2 seconds.
We need to get a pic of all the babies in our antenatal class, so might have a goodie for ya after Thursday when we all meet up again!

Pasport photo.

2010-05-28T22:11:00.000+12:00

Have you ever thought about getting a 6 week old to hold still long enough, in the government approved pose, to get a passport photo? Given that Emily was asleep minutes before this photo was taken, it's a surprising result.

We should probably have dressed her in pink however as she is doing her best tom boy impression.

Question of the day, in a passport application, what height do you include for someone who can't stand (or sit) unaided, and who is gaining centimeters by the day?

6 weeks old.

2010-05-26T17:53:00.001+12:00

Emily was given a Kowhai tree when she was born, and rather than plant it in the ground we're putting it in a big pot so that we can take it with us should we sell our house at any time. Decided a picture of Emily in the pot would be worth it prior to planting.

Good friends Carl and Denise visited with 16 month old Liam to show us our future once Emily starts walking.

All round good guy Donal the Irishman came by for dinner and to see what all the fuss was all about. Emily is down with the accents, having had a multi national series of visitors over her lifetime, all 6 weeks of it! Not that she understands any language though.

Learning about the world.

2010-05-14T22:58:00.000+12:00

Despite what my dad says, I do sometimes sleep it's just that I do it when he is at work!

We've discovered that Emily loves her under sea themed floor mat, and the toys hanging above it particularly the downward facing mirror. All good for a laugh.

A month old tomorrow.

2010-05-12T11:57:00.000+12:00

I'm almost a month old!

2010-05-08T22:12:00.000+12:00

The Safety is Sexy Campaign

2010-05-07T08:59:00.000+12:00

Found a great blog, www.safetyissexy.blogspot.com advocating helmet wearing.

Adventuring around Kapiti with my peeps.

2010-05-03T22:07:00.000+12:00

We headed out up the hill to watch the sunset, starting to teach Emily the wonders of the great outdoors.

It's all about being 2 weeks old.

2010-04-30T10:14:00.000+12:00

2010-04-25T20:29:00.000+12:00

Yay for poos!

2010-04-22T09:11:00.001+12:00

We are thrilled that the "milk chocolate explosion" occurred in Emily's diaper last night! We had been waiting for 5 days for some business from that end and we were all placing bets on who was gonna be the lucky candidate to change the diaper. Mommy woke Daddy up at 3am to partake in the festivities!